Friday, 13 June 2008

People Power Wins, as Ireland Votes No to Lisbon Treaty

The Green Party is welcoming the clear No vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. 862,415 voted No, compared to 752,451 who voted Yes.

Cllr. Rupert Read, Lead Green Party candidate for the 2009 European Elections in Eastern Region said:

"The remote political establishment of Brussels has had their dream of ever greater centralisation of political power utterly shattered today.

People power has won. The voters of Ireland saw though the pretence that the Treaty was a harmless exercise and recognised it for what it is - a further draining away of democracy from member states.

The UK Government would not dare put this Treaty to a vote here as the majority No vote would be overwhelming.

Irish voters have sent a clear message on behalf of all the ordinary people of Europe - that the Euro elite have now got to stop their grand plans to rule the continent without consent. A new democratic settlement is needed for Europe that retains co-operation between states but allows them the ability to make their own decisions on matters that affect their own people without being micromanaged from Brussels.

The Green Party opposes the Lisbon Treaty because it would have led to the further militarisation of the EU, as well as measures to promote increased economic liberalisation - which is an agenda for big business, at the expense of local communities. The Green Party favours localisation, instead.

Lisbon squandered a unique opportunity to put sustainability and climate security genuinely at the heart of the Union, and failed to bring the EU institutions closer to European citizens. It is a great thing that the Irish people have enabled us to see the back of such a failed Treaty."

2 Comments:

Of course what Rupert fails to say is that the No campaign in the Irish vote was sponsered largely by far out factions of the Catholic Church along with nationalists and no doubt a hint of many American conglogerates.So to say it was either a vote of the people and not that of a small right wing group with money, or an informed decision of the people is incorrect.In fact a fear inspired campaign was up against a campaign that was unfortuately led by a party that has had recent ups and downs. If you wanted a referendum on the Irish government you got one, a truly informed and balanced argument that shows that democracy always works, it was not.I am sure that the Green Party would be wrong to support such a travesty of basic democracy, even if the answer were still to be no.

OBVIOUSLY the opposition of people such as myself and Caroline Lucas to the Federalist project in general and to the E.U. Constitution / Lisbon Treaty in particular is NOT right-wing! It is if anything left-wing and localisationist (anti-globalisation). PLEASE DO READ http://www.greenparty.org.uk/news/3463 IF YOU HAVEN'T YET DONE SO. This explains very clearly why it is right for we radical Greens to have opposed Lisbon.

The Green Party is welcoming the clear No vote in the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. 862,415 voted No, compared to 752,451 who voted Yes.

Cllr. Rupert Read, Lead Green Party candidate for the 2009 European Elections in Eastern Region said:

"The remote political establishment of Brussels has had their dream of ever greater centralisation of political power utterly shattered today.

People power has won. The voters of Ireland saw though the pretence that the Treaty was a harmless exercise and recognised it for what it is - a further draining away of democracy from member states.

The UK Government would not dare put this Treaty to a vote here as the majority No vote would be overwhelming.

Irish voters have sent a clear message on behalf of all the ordinary people of Europe - that the Euro elite have now got to stop their grand plans to rule the continent without consent. A new democratic settlement is needed for Europe that retains co-operation between states but allows them the ability to make their own decisions on matters that affect their own people without being micromanaged from Brussels.

The Green Party opposes the Lisbon Treaty because it would have led to the further militarisation of the EU, as well as measures to promote increased economic liberalisation - which is an agenda for big business, at the expense of local communities. The Green Party favours localisation, instead.

Lisbon squandered a unique opportunity to put sustainability and climate security genuinely at the heart of the Union, and failed to bring the EU institutions closer to European citizens. It is a great thing that the Irish people have enabled us to see the back of such a failed Treaty."